Prohibition - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Origins of Prohibition In the 1820s and ’30s, a wave of religious revivalism swept the United States, leading to increased calls for temperance, as well as other “perfectionist” movements such as the abolition of slavery. In 1838, the state of Massachusetts passed a temperance law banning the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities; though the law was repealed two years later, it set a precedent for such legislation. Maine passed the first state prohibition law in 1846, and a number of other states had followed suit by the time the Civil War began in 1861. Did You Know? In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated the incumbent President Herbert Hoover, who once called Prohibition "the great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose." Some say FDR celebrated the repeal of Prohibition by enjoying a dirty martini, his preferred drink. By the turn of the century, temperance societies were a common fixture in communities across the United States.

Women played a strong role in the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages. In 1906, a new wave of attacks began on the sale of liquor, led by the Anti-Saloon League (established in 1893) and driven by a reaction to urban growth, as well as the rise of evangelical Protestantism and its view of saloon culture as corrupt and ungodly. In addition, many factory owners supported prohibition in their desire to prevent accidents and increase the efficiency of their workers in an era of increased industrial production and extended working hours. Passage of the Prohibition Amendment In 1917, after the United States entered World War I , President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition in order to save grain for producing food. That same year, Congress submitted the 18th Amendment, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Though Congress had stipulated a seven-year time limit for the process, the amendment received the support of the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states in just 11 months.

Ratified on January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment went into effect a year later, by which time no fewer than 33 states had already enacted their own prohibition legislation. In October 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, which provided guidelines for the federal enforcement of Prohibition. Championed by Representative Andrew Volstead of Mississippi , the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the legislation was more commonly known as the Volstead Act. Enforcement of Prohibition Both federal and local government struggled to enforce Prohibition over the course of the 1920s. Enforcement was initially assigned to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and was later transferred to the Justice Department. In general, Prohibition was enforced much more strongly in areas where the population was sympathetic to the legislation–mainly rural areas and small towns–and much more loosely in urban areas. Despite very early signs of success, including a decline in arrests for drunkenness and a reported 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, those who wanted to keep drinking found ever-more inventive ways to do it.

The illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”) went on throughout the decade, along with the operation of “speakeasies” (stores or nightclubs selling alcohol), the smuggling of alcohol across state lines and the informal production of liquor (“moonshine” or “bathtub gin”) in private homes. In addition, the Prohibition era encouraged the rise of criminal activity associated with bootlegging. The most notorious example was the Chicago gangster Al Capone , who earned a staggering $60 million annually from bootleg operations and speakeasies. Such illegal operations fueled a corresponding rise in gang violence, including the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, in which several men dressed as policemen (and believed to be have associated with Capone) shot and killed a group of men in an enemy gang. Prohibition Comes to an End The high price of bootleg liquor meant that the nation’s working class and poor were far more restricted during Prohibition than middle or upper class Americans. Even as costs for law enforcement, jails and prisons spiraled upward, support for Prohibition was waning by the end of the 1920s.

In addition, fundamentalist and nativist forces had gained more control over the temperance movement, alienating its more moderate members. With the country mired in the Great Depression by 1932, creating jobs and revenue by legalizing the liquor industry had an undeniable appeal. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president that year on a platform calling for Prohibition’s appeal, and easily won victory over the incumbent President Herbert Hoover . FDR’s victory meant the end for Prohibition, and in February 1933 Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The amendment was submitted to the states, and in December 1933 Utah provided the 36th and final necessary vote for ratification. Though a few states continued to prohibit alcohol after Prohibition’s end, all had abandoned the ban by 1966. Tags Alcohol Prohibition in the USA | Ian Tyrrell Alcohol Prohibition in the USA test Alcohol Prohibition in the USA National Prohibition in America outlawed the sale of alcohol under the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919.

The Congressional law to implement the prohibition permitted under the 18th amendment was the Volstead Act, coming into operation January, 1920. It is important to realise that the alcohol prohibition movement had a long nineteenth-century background. Prohibition had been introduced on the state level in the northern states in the 1850s—though the state legislatures repealed these laws during the period 1855-1865. Beginning in the 1870s to 1890s the modern organizations that lobbied for national prohibition emerged. These included the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (1874); the Prohibition Party, which was prominent in the 1880s and 1890s, and the Anti-Saloon League (1893). It was the latter that took the lead after 1900 in pressing for stricter anti-alcohol laws. The League focused not on the elimination of drinking (which was not made illegal under National Prohibition), but on the abolition of the sale of alcohol through outlets such as saloons. Hence the name Anti-Saloon League.

The saloon was seen by its opponents as a source of moral corruption and inappropriate political influence on, or in league with, local “boss” or “machine” politicians. The 1900-1917 period was one of social reform known as Progressivism, and Progressives believed that, through alcohol, other social habits or evils such as prostitution and gambling flourished in association with saloons. The League’s tactics focussed on non-partisan lobbying to influence legislatures at both the state and federal levels. Unlike some earlier prohibitionist groups, the League was not closely aligned with any one political party, preferring to support individual candidates from any party. It was this non-partisan tactic, and its effective lobbying of legislators, backed by the Protestant churches, that helped the League build prohibitionist strength. By 1917, on the eve of American entry to World War I, 18 states had achieved complete prohibition. Prohibitionists had also achieved a number of key legislative goals, particularly the Webb-Kenyon Act of 1913 to reinforce the ability of the individual prohibitionist states to defend their territory against alcohol imports.

But the prohibitionists in Congress launched after 1913 a campaign to make the whole country dry. They used the media including prohibitionist publications and cartoons to get the result. National prohibition was advocated as a wartime measure after the US declared war on Germany in April 1917 and the prohibition amendment passed Congress and was sent to the states for ratification late in 1917. The wartime prohibition act was passed in 1918 at the very end of the war; but the Lever Act August 1917 had already banned distilled spirits production for the remainder of the war and reserved supplies of grain for food production, and by 1919, just before the Volstead Act went into effect nationally, 27 states had enacted full prohibition laws. Anti-German sentiment worked in the interests of extending prohibition in wartime because most of the breweries had been founded in the 19th century by German immigrants to the US, and retained German names. Thus wartime hostility toward Germans helped the rise of prohibition.

But more fundamentally, the movement drew upon an anti-alcohol culture long instilled among middle-class people in city suburbs and small towns, the Protestant churches and their allies in the rural population in the south and west, and some urban progressives who saw alcohol as a source of inefficiency, poverty and social disputation in American life. The war simply gave these disparate groups an opportunity to align their movement with wartime nationalism and its crusading spirit of self-sacrifice. Businessmen such as Henry Ford also favoured prohibition because it would, he believed, benefit workers and make for a more efficient economy. Thus prohibitionists hoped to make the US a better place. They merged progressivism and anti-alcohol sentiment and showed that prohibition was a social reform movement of great significance. The reform was introduced at the same time that President Woodrow Wilson was advocating a moralistic foreign policy. The American architects of prohibition attempted to export prohibition abroad, forming in 1919 a World League against Alcoholism. By attempting to make other countries abandon alcohol, the prohibitionists wished to safeguard the US against illegal imports of liquor, and also displayed the moral idealism of the prohibitionists, showing how their plans enmeshed with Wilsonian ideals for a new world order.

The study of prohibition as a movement can be used to illuminate the missionizing theme in American foreign policy at the time of World War I. Prohibition lasted from 1919 to 1933. During this period, the US was in theory a “dry” country, meaning that alcohol could not be sold, except in small qualities for medicinal purposes as prescribed by a doctor, or for use in religious Communion services. However, home possession and consumption for personal use was allowed under the law. At first, particularly in the period 1919-22, alcohol consumption dropped. This continued a trend during World War I itself, when the temporary wartime prohibition had been in effect. The unavailability of legal supplies of alcohol affected social classes unevenly. The poor found that alcohol became more expensive, because of the shortness of legal supply, and therefore working-class consumption declined. The saloons themselves were closed, and thus a source of potential temptation to working-class drinking was removed. This appealed to the prohibitionists as evidence of the progressive and ameliorative effects of the measure on poverty.

However middleclass people, not known previously as heavy drinkers but as abstainers or light drinkers, were able to afford the higher priced illegal booze, and it became fashionable to drink cocktails in one’s own home or at parties. Young women were among those who drank more, in conformity with the image of the “flapper” and as part of the rise of a mass consumption society in the 1920s. Thus the law changed the pattern of consumption. Beer (the working-class saloon drink) dropped and the more compact form of alcohol, spirits, rose in popularity. Nevertheless, per capita alcohol consumption did not return to pre-World War I levels.The law was widely flouted by the mid- to late 1920s, and gangsterism and crime based on the profits of illegal shipment of alcohol flourished. New institutions for drinking, especially the illegal drinking places known as speak-easies emerged. Some Americans fought prohibition in legal ways. The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (AAPA), took over the campaign for repeal, led by Pierre DuPont and other powerful corporate leaders. An Organization called the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform seeking amendment of the 18th amendment was founded in 1929.

Other women’s groups continued to support prohibition. Wealthy Americans and those who opposed the spread of illegality belonged to these organizations. They argued that disrespect for the law had been increased as a result of the prohibition amendment. Though businessmen at first supported prohibition, prominent capitalists eventually turned against it as did John D. Rockefeller, on account of the illegality associated with prohibition-related crime. Prohibition affected the politics of the 1920s. The Democratic Party became deeply split between its urban, anti-prohibition wing and the pro-prohibition rural and southern interests. The conflict paralysed the party in the 1924 election and aided the triumph of the Republicans under Calvin Coolidge. In 1928, the Democrats nominated a “wet” or anti-prohibition candidate, Governor Al Smith of New York. He galvanised anti-prohibitionist and Catholic voters, particularly in the urban areas, and presaged the formation of the coalition of liberals, ethnics, Catholics and urban people generally in the 1930s under the New Deal.

However, the “dry” majority held in 1928, largely because of the prosperity of the 1920s, and Herbert Hoover was elected President. He was strongly supported by the Anti-Saloon League and the WCTU. Smith’s anti-prohibitionist and Catholic credentials ruined his chances across much of the West, where Protestant, anti-urban and Republican sentiment was strong. It was not until the Great Depression (1929-39) that American opinion turned decisively against prohibition. The Depression brought economic issues to the fore and dampened the cultural conflicts. The taxes that could be raised by legalising and taxing alcohol outweighed residual concern over the moral effects of drinking. The Wickersham Commission (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement) appointed in 1929 by President Hoover was divided over whether to recommend modification of the prohibition amendment—by allowing the sale of low alcohol beer. If prohibitionists had accepted the sale of beer, it is likely that the prohibition on spirits could have retained political support but they refused to compromise. This failure to compromise lost prohibitionists a chance to retain partial prohibition. When the Democratic party gained the presidency under Franklin D.

Roosevelt in 1933 it was committed to the anti-prohibitionist stance pioneered within the party by Al Smith and Repeal (the 21st amendment) was quickly passed and ratified. Prohibition was one of the most profoundly significant social reforms of the early twentieth century—it illustrates the ambivalence of Progressivism in its blend of moral reform and the search for efficiency through a more rational business-dominated organization of society. An alcohol-free society would have better employees, less social problems caused by alcohol, and less welfare problems. The prohibition movement was a part of the vast cultural cleavage in 1920s America that also involved the separate issues of the Ku Klux Klan and the campaign against evolution, as seen in the Scopes trial (1925). Cosmopolitan Americans and intellectuals scoffed at rural and small town people who supported prohibition and those who were anti-evolution, and there was created a cultural divide in American society not dissimilar to that over issues such as abortion and other Christian right crusades of the 1990s and after. Perhaps the roots of the current cultural divisions could be traced from these 1920s sources, of which the dispute over prohibition was an important part.

Prohibition represented a profound intrusion on the private lives of Americans and contributed to the growth of state power. Enforcement of prohibition was shared jointly between the state and federal governments, with the Department of the Treasury principally responsible for enforcement at the federal level. But the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) led from 1924 by J. Edgar Hoover also became involved in combating the crime which arose from the context of prohibition. Originally called the Bureau of Investigation, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover had been expanded in World War I partly to combat anti-war radicalism, but in the 1920s it had to deal with issues arising from he criminal activities of bootleggers. The anti-alcohol movement left its impact on American life because the repeal of the prohibition amendment turned regulation of the liquor industry back to the states and allowed the states which wanted to continue to restrict alcohol sale and consumption to do so—which they did, especially in the South and Midwest for the remainder of the 1930s. American tastes were also changed by prohibition. The cocktail grew in popularity, while the custom of drinking in restaurants was in many areas lost.

Like this: 20 responses to “Alcohol Prohibition in the USA” Carl Slade Thanks for this lucid article. I have always thought of Prohibition in terms of its sociological impact and never realized the profound political ramifications. My curiosity was roused while reading period fiction by Upton Sinclair. Carl Slade, Pretoria S Africa the story of alcohol prohibition in usa is too long. a very informative article. learned a lot that i di not know before. frank This is one of the more lucid and accurate accounts of the history of alcohol prohibition I’ve ever read. Mia This article helped me alot when making my history project. It’s very thourough and understandable. Goodwork! Larry Cool! I’m using these notes for my research paper (in my own words) Thank you very much jessie What Was Prohibition? (1920 to 1933) By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated January 13, 2017. Prohibition was a period of nearly 14 years of U.S. history (1920 to 1933) in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquor was made illegal.

It was a time characterized by speakeasies, glamour, and gangsters and a period of time in which even the average citizen broke the law. Interestingly, Prohibition, sometimes referred to as the "Noble Experiment," led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed. Temperance Movements After the American Revolution , drinking was on the rise. To combat this, a number of societies were organized as part of a new Temperance movement, which attempted to dissuade people from becoming intoxicated. At first, these organizations pushed moderation, but after several decades, the movement's focus changed to complete prohibition of alcohol consumption. The Temperance movement blamed alcohol for many of society's ills, especially crime and murder. Saloons, a social haven for men who lived in the still untamed West, were viewed by many, especially women, as a place of debauchery and evil. continue reading below our video How Did Bootlegging Work During Prohibition? Prohibition, members of the Temperance movement urged, would stop husbands from spending all the family income on alcohol and prevent accidents in the workplace caused by workers who drank during lunch.

The 18th Amendment Passes In the beginning of the 20th century, there were Temperance organizations in nearly every state. By 1916, over half of the U.S. states already had statutes that prohibited alcohol. In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol, was ratified. It went into effect on January 16, 1920—beginning the era known as Prohibition. The Volstead Act While it was the 18th Amendment that established Prohibition, it was the Volstead Act (passed on October 28, 1919) that clarified the law. The Volstead Act stated that "beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors" meant any beverage that was more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. The Act also stated that owning any item designed to manufacture alcohol was illegal and it set specific fines and jail sentences for violating Prohibition. Loopholes There were, however, several loopholes for people to legally drink during Prohibition. For instance, the 18th Amendment did not mention the actual drinking of liquor.

Also, since Prohibition went into effect a full year after the 18th Amendment's ratification, many people bought cases of then-legal alcohol and stored them for personal use. The Volstead Act allowed alcohol consumption if it was prescribed by a doctor. Needless to say, large numbers of new prescriptions were written for alcohol. Gangsters and Speakeasies For people who didn't buy cases of alcohol in advance or know a "good" doctor, there were illegal ways to drink during Prohibition. A new breed of gangster arose during this period. These people took notice of the amazingly high level of demand for alcohol within society and the extremely limited avenues of supply to the average citizen. Within this imbalance of supply and demand, gangsters saw profit. Al Capone in Chicago is one of the most famous gangsters of this time period. These gangsters would hire men to smuggle in rum from the Caribbean (rumrunners) or hijack whiskey from Canada and bring it into the U.S. Others would buy large quantities of liquor made in homemade stills. The gangsters would then open up secret bars (speakeasies) for people to come in, drink, and socialize.

During this period, newly hired Prohibition agents were responsible for raiding speakeasies, finding stills, and arresting gangsters, but many of these agents were under-qualified and underpaid, leading to a high rate of bribery. Attempts to Repeal the 18th Amendment Almost immediately after the ratification of the 18th Amendment, organizations formed to repeal it. As the perfect world promised by the Temperance movement failed to materialize, more people joined the fight to bring back liquor. The anti-Prohibition movement gained strength as the 1920s progressed, often stating that the question of alcohol consumption was a local issue and not something that should be in the Constitution. Additionally, the Stock Market Crash in 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression started changing people's opinion. People needed jobs. The government needed money. Making alcohol legal again would open up many new jobs for citizens and additional sales taxes for the government. The 21st Amendment Is Ratified On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, making alcohol once again legal.

This was the first and only time in U.S. history that an Amendment has been repealed. Prohibition Era in America & the 18th amendment: 1920-1933 Prohibition Era in America & the 18th amendment: 1920-1933 Leave a reply For alcohol and drink enthusiasts far and wide, an era in U.S. history known as “The Prohibition Era” was a long and dark period for citizens of the United States of America. Prohibition in America was the time period between 1920 and 1933, when the 18th Amendment significantly changed life and leisure for people at the time. Ships docking to unload “”Fresh Fish and Fruit” delivers bottled drinks to men at the pier during the Prohibiton. Photo Credit: Boston Public Library Essentially, the 18th Amendment took away the business licenses from every brewer, distiller, wholesaler and retailer of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States of America in an attempt to reform an “un-respectable” segment of the population at the time.

Congress actually voted its approval of this amendment in October 1919, and enacted it into law as the National Prohibition Act of 1920. This “prohibition” put legal brewers out of business and opened the door for unintended consequences across the USA: bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, rackets, gangsters, and organized crime. All over America, illegal drinking establishments popped up, and each of these would be called a speak easy. Secret stash of booze during the Prohibition Era. Photo Credit: Alain Hubler The idea of prohibition actually started long before the 18th Amendment. There was a whole prohibition movement that had strong roots that reach back before the dates of the Civil War. There was enough concern over the inappropriate use of alcohol and a temperance movement sprang up under the leadership of The Very Reverend Theobald Mathew. Then in 1893 the Anti-Saloon League was founded in Oberlin, Ohio. Soon the state chapters were organized across the country. The US Steel Corporation forbade its employees to partake of any liquor on or off duty. Henry Ford also prohibited the possession of liquor, wine or beer by people employed in his company.

By 1916, 21 different states had each banned saloons. Luckily, after all those “dry” years, the 18th Amendment was finally repealed with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 5, 1933 before the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. So you can thank the 21st Amendment, all of those bootleggers, and secret saloon owners who kept the culture alive through such a long, dark period for alcohol enthusiast nationwide! Cheers! Prohibition, and its Effects on Chicagoans, and Organized Crime The illegalization of alcohol (consumption and manufacture) was passed into law at a national level in 1919 and enacted in 1920. Often historians regard Prohibition as the culmination, perhaps the over-extension, of the efforts at social change which thrived during the era.

Indeed, because of the many important social policies determined, the period of American history from 1865 until 1920 is often called the "Progressive Era." During the period, unions expanded greatly, a number of basic labor rights were secured, including a minimum working age, and women gained the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment (1920). Ironically, at the same time that America was pushing forward its own social policy with a number of progressive, forward-looking policies, the first Red Scare ended up in the jailing of tens of thousands of innocent people. The government played an official hand in the chaos, coordinating raids across the country. A Prohibition Party political cartoon (Kerr) . Before Prohibition became national law, there were previous attempts at imposing "dryness" upon Americans. A national political party, aptly named the Prohibition Party, was formed on the basis of its "dry" stance in the 1869. From 1873 to 1874, a large coalition of women led the "Woman's Crusade," a movement which sought the destruction of liquor and the closure of saloons through direct actions, primarily petition campaigns and demonstrations.

Later, a number of civic groups formed to organize the prohibition effort. The most well-known of these is the Anti-Saloon League, which had offices throughout the States and worked closely with churches to push forward the movement. An Anti-Saloon League Banner (Kerr) . One of the most outspoken rivals of Prohibition was Percy Andreae, who organized a saloon-backed campaign against the illegalization of liquor. Andreae reveals the connection between religious interests and the political motivations of the Prohibitionists, demanding that the Prohibition movement was largely the result of religious forces attaching themselves to a policy fad to spread their ideals. He writes: "Prohibition is merely the title of the movement. Its real purpose is of a religious, sectarian character, and this applies not only to the movement in America, but to the same movement in England, a fact which, strangely enough, has rarely, if at all, been recognized by those who have dealt with the question in the public press. If there is any one who doubts the truth of this statement, let me put this to him: How many Roman Catholics are prohibitionists? How many Jews, the most temperate race on earth, are to be found in the ranks of prohibition? Or Lutherans?

Or German Protestants generally? What is the proportion of Episcopalians to that of Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, and the like, in the active prohibition army? The answer to these questions will, I venture to say, prove conclusively the assertion that the fight for prohibition is synonymous with the fight of a certain religious sect, or group of religious sects, for the supremacy of its ideas. In England it is the Nonconformists, which is in that country the generic name for the same sects, who are fighting the fight, and the suppression of liquor there is no more the ultimate end they have in view than it is here in America. It is the fads and restrictions that are part and parcel of their lugubrious notion of Godworship which they eventually hope to impose upon the rest of humanity; a Sunday without a smile, no games, no recreation, no pleasures, no music, card-playing tabooed, dancing anathematized, the beauties of art decried as impure-in short, this world reduced to a barren, forbidding wilderness in which we, its inhabitants, are to pass our time contemplating the joys of the next.

Rather problematical joys, by the way, if we are to suppose we shall worship God in the next world in the same somber way as we are called upon by these worthies to do in this" (Andreae, 10) . It was with the American declaration of war in 1917 that the Prohibitionists got the push in support necessary to enact the Volstead Act at a national level. The seriousness of the war seemed to demand a nation with a singularly serious mind, and so the prohibitionists propagandized around the war, inventing slogans like, "Sober soldiers and factory hands are better soldiers and factory hands" (Allsop, 28) . A few years after the U.S. began its involvement in World War I, the Amendment passed. In the Senate the Amendment passed after only 13 hours of debate, and in the House it passed after only one day (Allsop, 28) . A cartoon criticizing Chicago politicians for their corruption (Kerr) . A stamp commemorating the Prohibition Era (Citation) .

Prohibition did create a huge drop-off in consumption in its first few years (see this external website for a graph on alcohol consumption), despite claims that it was the "most alcoholic period in American history" (Allsop, 25) . However, very quickly after this drop, as we can see, the amount of consumption began to rise. The rise was likely caused by the proliferation of illegal ("bootlegged") alcohol. Bootlegging, interestingly, began before Prohibition, and actually continued after it, as a means of bypassing high taxes on alcohol. Without tax, bootleg liquor was sold much cheaper than legal alcohol. By 1930, bootlegging was much more efficiently organized, thanks to criminals who turned the operations into a full-fledged illicit industry. By that year, it was estimated that 10,000 speakeasies were operating (Allsop, 33) . In Chicago, hundreds of bars that were supposed to close simply stayed open after Prohibition became law.

There were innumerable "blind pigs," bars and saloons with blank fronts (unmarked with any indication of their function), through which one entered a side door, often fitted with a peep hole (Allsop, 28) . A gentleman's magazine at the time featured an article on bootlegging, and had this to say, "The sale of dissipation is not only a great business; it is among the few greatest businesses of Chicago. The leading branch of it ... is the sale of alcoholic liquor.... The liquor interests are vastly more extended in Chicago that any other [city]. There are 7,300 licensed liquor sellers in Chicago, and in addition about a thousand places where liquor is sold illegally. The only business which approaches it in number of establishments ... is the grocery trade, which has about 5,200. The city spends at least half as much for what it drinks as for what it eats..." (Turner, 576) .

Great Lakes Brewing Company's "Elliot Ness" amber lager (Citation) The reason bootlegged liquor stayed so prominent was simple: it turned an enormous profit; the cost of manufacture was nil compared to the amount that could be made from selling it. In one year during Prohibition, it was estimated that professional bootleggers made about $4,000,000,000 (Allsop, 33) . A few clever bootleggers convinced doctors to write them prescriptions for alcohol (medicinal use was not illegalized by the Volstead Act), finding that many druggists took a prescription as a ticket for unlimited purchase (Allsop, 34) . Ultimately, it was largely the harsh enforcement of Prohibition which led many to ultimately reject it - the defenders of the movement seem to have become far too fervent in their dedication.

For example, in 1928 Fred Palm of Lansing, Michigan was given life imprisonment for possessing a pint of gin; in 1929 an Aurora, Illinois housewife was killed and her husband clubbed by a deputy sheriff searching for liquor; in 1928, an innocent insurance agent was killed during a Chicago raid (Allsop, 36). Another example of the extremity of enforcement is provided (ironically) through the brother of Al Capone, "Three Gun" Hart . Nine days after his election, Roosevelt asked Congress to amend the Volstead Act to permit brewing and sale of beverages up to 3.2% alcohol. In February, 1933 resolutions to repeal the amendment were passed and Prohibition came to an end. An anti-Prohibition campaign poster (Citation) . 18th and 21st Amendments - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com 18th and 21st Amendments A+E Networks Introduction By the late 1800s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation.

The movement reached its apex in 1920 when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Prohibition proved difficult to enforce and failed to have the intended effect of eliminating crime and other social problems–to the contrary, it led to a rise in organized crime, as the bootlegging of alcohol became an ever-more lucrative operation. In 1933, widespread public disillusionment led Congress to ratify the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition. Google Origins of Temperance Movement A wave of intense religious revivalism that swept the U.S. during the 1820s and 30s led to the formation of a number of prohibition movements driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a “national curse.” (This revivalism also helped inspire the movement to end slavery.) The first temperance legislation appeared in 1838, in the form of a Massachusetts law prohibiting the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities.

Though it was repealed two years later, Maine passed the first state prohibition law in 1846, and by the time the Civil War began, a number of other states had followed suit. Did You Know? Prohibition was known as "the noble experiment." The phrase was coined by President Herbert Hoover, who wrote to an Idaho senator in 1928: "Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose." As early as 1873, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Ohio called for the abolition of the sale of alcohol. They were soon joined in the fight by the even more powerful Anti-Saloon League (ASL), founded in 1893 in Ohio but later expanded into a national organization that endorsed political candidates and lobbied for legislation against saloons. Beginning around 1906, the ASL led a renewed call for prohibition legislation at the state level. Through speeches, advertisements and public demonstrations at saloons and bars, prohibition advocates attempted to convince people that that eliminating alcohol from society would eliminate poverty and social vices, such as immoral behavior and physical violence.

One prominent temperance advocate, Kentucky-born Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (she called herself “Carry A. Nation”), became known for particularly violent tactics against what she called “evil spirits.” In addition to making protest speeches, Nation was known for breaking saloon windows and mirrors and destroying kegs of beer or whiskey with a hatchet. She was arrested numerous times, and became a household name across the country for her “saloon-smashing” campaign. From State to Federal Prohibition Legislation By 1916, 23 of 48 states had passed anti-saloon legislation. Many went further, prohibiting the manufacture of alcoholic beverages as well. After the congressional elections that year, “dry” members (as those who favored a national prohibition of alcohol became known) won a two-thirds majority over “wet” in the U.S. Congress. On January 29, 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcohol within the United States; it would go into effect the following January. Later in 1919, the National Prohibition Act–popularly known as the Volstead Act, after its legislative sponsor, Representative Andrew J.

Volstead of Minnesota–was enacted in order to provide the government with the means of enforcing Prohibition. Loopholes in this act–such as the fact that liquor used for medicinal, sacramental or industrial purposes remained legal, as did fruit or grape beverages prepared at home–as well as varying degrees of government support throughout the 1920s hampered the enforcement of Prohibition, and it would remain more of an ideal than a reality. Unexpected Events Under Prohibition, the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor–known as “bootlegging”–occurred on a large scale across the United States. In urban areas, where the majority of the population opposed Prohibition, enforcement was generally much weaker than in rural areas and smaller towns. Perhaps the most dramatic consequence of Prohibition was the effect it had on organized crime in the United States: as the production and sale of alcohol went further underground, it began to be controlled by the Mafia and other gangs, who transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises that reaped huge profits from the illicit liquor trade. When it came to its booming bootleg business, the Mafia became skilled at bribing police and politicians to look the other way.

Chicago’s Al Capone emerged as the most notorious example of this phenomenon, earning an estimated $60 million annually from the bootlegging and speakeasy operations he controlled. In addition to bootlegging, gambling and prostitution reached new heights during the 1920s as well. A growing number of Americans came to blame Prohibition for this widespread moral decay and disorder–despite the fact that the legislation had intended to do the opposite–and to condemn it as a dangerous infringement on the freedom of the individual. Calls for Prohibition’s Repeal If public sentiment had turned against Prohibition by the late 1920s, the advent of the Great Depression only hastened its demise, as some argued that the ban on alcohol denied jobs to the unemployed and much-needed revenue to the government. The efforts of the nonpartisan group Americans Against Prohibition Association (AAPA) added to public disillusionment. In 1932, the platform of Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt included a plank for repealing the 18th Amendment, and his victory that November marked a certain end to Prohibition.

In February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which repealed both the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act. The resolution required state conventions, rather than the state legislatures, to approve the amendment, effectively reducing the process to a one-state, one-vote referendum rather than a popular vote contest. That December, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the necessary majority for repeal. A few states continued statewide prohibition after 1933, but by 1966 all of them had abandoned it. Since then, liquor control in the United States has largely been determined at the local level. Tags Digital History Digital History Digital History ID 3383 At midnight, January 16, 1920, the United States went dry; breweries, distilleries, and saloons were forced to close their doors. Led by the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the dry forces had triumphed by linking Prohibition to a variety of Progressive era social causes.

Proponents of Prohibition included many women reformers, who were concerned about alcohol's link to wife beating and child abuse, and industrialists, such as Henry Ford, who were concerned about the impact of drinking on labor productivity. Advocates of Prohibition argued that outlawing drinking would eliminate corruption, end machine politics, and help Americanize immigrants. Even before the 18th Amendment was ratified, about 65 percent of the country had already banned alcohol. In 1916, seven states adopted anti-liquor laws, bringing the number of states to 19 that prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. America's entry into World War I made Prohibition seem patriotic since many breweries were owned by German Americans. Wayne Wheeler, lobbyist for the Anti-Saloon League, urged the federal government to investigate "a number of breweries around the country which are owned in part by alien enemies." In December 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment. A month later, President Woodrow Wilson instituted partial prohibition to conserve grain for the war effort. Beer was limited to 2.75 percent alcohol content, and production was held to 70 percent of the previous year's production.

In September, the president issued a ban on the wartime production of beer. National Prohibition was defended as a war measure. The amendment's proponents argued that grain should be made into bread for fighting men and not for making liquor. Anti-German sentiment aided Prohibition's approval. The Anti-Saloon League called Milwaukee's brewers "the worst of all our German enemies," and dubbed their beer "Kaiser brew." Unsuccessfully, the brewing industry argued that taxes on liquor were paying more for the war effort than were liberty bonds. Yet even after Prohibition was enacted, many ethnic Americans viewed beer or wine drinking as an integral part of their culture, not as a vice. The wording of the 18th Amendment banned the production, transport and sale (but not the private possession or consumption) of "intoxicating liquors." Many brewers hoped that the ban would not apply to beer and wine. But Congress was controlled by the drys, who advocated a complete ban on alcohol. A year after the ratification, Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which defined intoxicating beverages as anything with more than 0.5 percent alcohol. This meant that beer and wine, as well as whiskey and gin, were barred from being legally sold.

Advocates did not believe it would be necessary to establish a large administrative apparatus to enforce the law. The federal government never had more than 2,500 agents enforcing the law. A few states did try to help out: Indiana banned the sale of cocktail shakers and hip flasks; Vermont required drunks to identify the source of their alcohol. The original Congressional appropriation for enforcement was $5 million; several years later, the government estimated enforcement would cost $300 million. Enforcing the law proved almost impossible. Smuggling and bootlegging were widespread. Two New York agents, Izzie Einstein and Mo Smith, relied on disguises while staging their raids--once posing as man and wife. Their efforts were halted, however, after a raid on New York City's 21 trapped some of the city's leading citizens. In New York, 7,000 arrests for liquor law violations resulted in 17 convictions. Enforcement of Prohibition was originally assigned to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); hence, the enforcement agents who destroyed moonshine stills were called â€œrevenuers.â€� In 1930, enforcement transferred to the Justice Department.

After Prohibition, tax collection on liquor was returned to the IRS, which was also charged with the registration of machine guns and sawed-off shotguns and the enforcement of taxes on tobacco. These responsibilities were transferred in 1972 to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Prohibition failed because it was unenforceable. By 1925, half a dozen states, including New York, passed laws banning local police from investigating violations. Prohibition had little support in the cities of the Northeast and Midwest. Prohibition did briefly pay some public health dividends. The death rate from alcoholism was cut by 80 percent by 1921 from pre-war levels, while alcohol-related crime dropped markedly. Nevertheless, seven years after Prohibition went into effect, the total deaths from adulterated liquor reached approximately 50,000, and there were many more cases of blindness and paralysis. According to one story, a potential buyer who sent a liquor sample to a laboratory for analysis was shocked when a chemist replied: "Your horse has diabetes." Prohibition quickly produced bootleggers, speakeasies, moonshine, bathtub gin, and rum runners smuggling supplies of alcohol across state lines.

In 1927, there were an estimated 30,000 illegal speakeasies--twice the number of legal bars before Prohibition. Many people made beer and wine at home. It was relatively easy finding a doctor to sign a prescription for medicinal whiskey sold at drugstores. In 1919, a year before Prohibition went into effect, Cleveland had 1,200 legal bars. By 1923, the city had an estimated 3,000 illegal speakeasies, along with 10,000 stills. An estimated 30,000 city residents sold liquor during Prohibition, and another 100,000 made home brew or bathtub gin for themselves and friends. Prohibition also fostered corruption and contempt for law and law enforcement among large segments of the population. Harry Daughtery, attorney general under Warren Harding, accepted bribes from bootleggers. George Remus, a Cincinnati bootlegger, had a thousand salesmen on his payroll, many of them police officers. He estimated that half his receipts went as bribes.

Al Capone's Chicago organization reportedly took in $60 million in 1927 and had half the city's police on its payroll. Popular culture glamorized bootleggers like Chicago's Capone. These symbols served as the model for the central characters in such films as Little Caesar and Scarface. In rural areas, moonshiners became folk heroes. The fashion of the flapper, dancing the Charleston in a short skirt, was incomplete without a hip flask. Prohibition created a huge consumer market unmet by legitimate means. Organized crime filled that vacuum left by the closure of the legal alcohol industry. Homicides increased in many cities, partly as a result of gang wars, but also because of an increase in drunkenness. Prohibition devastated the nation's brewing industry. St. Louis had 22 breweries before Prohibition. Only nine reopened after Prohibition ended in 1933. Anheuser-Busch made it through Prohibition by making ice cream, near beer, corn syrup, ginger ale, root beer, yeast, malt extract, refrigerated cabinets, and automobile and truck bodies. The jobs and tax revenue that a legal liquor industry would generate looked attractive as the country entered the Great Depression.

During his presidential campaign in 1932, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who never hid his fondness for martinis, called for Prohibition's repeal. The noble experiment ended at 3:32 p.m., December 5, 1933, when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition. By then, even some proponents admitted that the 18th Amendment resulted in "evil consequences." The Rev. Sam Small, an evangelist and temperance advocate, said that Prohibition had created "an orgy of lawlessness and official corruption." John D. Rockefeller, a teetotaler, observed in 1932, "drinking has generally increased, the speakeasy has replaced the saloon, and a vast army of lawbreakers has been recruited and financed on a colossal scale." Even today, debate about the impact of Prohibition rages. Critics argue that the amendment failed to eliminate drinking, made drinking more popular among the young, spawned organized crime and disrespect for the law, encouraged solitary drinking, and led beer drinkers to hard liquor and cocktails.

One wit joked that "Prohibition succeeded in replacing good beer with bad gin." The lesson these critics derive: it is counterproductive to try to legislate morality. Opponents argue that alcohol consumption declined dramatically during Prohibition--by 30 to 50 percent. Deaths from cirrhosis of the liver for men fell from 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 to 10.7 per 100,000 in 1929. Was Prohibition a "noble experiment" or a misguided effort to use government to shape morality? Even today, the answer is not entirely clear. Alcohol remains a serious cause of death, disability, and domestic abuse. It was not until the 1960s that alcohol consumption levels returned to their pre-Prohibition levels. Today, alcohol is linked each year to more than 23,000 motor vehicle deaths and to more than half the nation's homicides, and is closely linked to domestic violence. Prohibition: Timeline | PBS Prohibition Hover over the bottles for quick info about what happened in each state. Click on a bottle to learn more through photos and videos.

Explore the Timeline Click the images to learn more about each event through photos and videos. Use the scrollbar at the bottom of the timeline to advance the decades. Timeline 1826: Reverand Lyman Beecher preaches against the evils of alcohol. 1840: The Washingtonians' "Society of Reformed Drunkards" formed in 1840, widely considered a precursor to Alcoholics Anonymous. 1851: Maine was the first state to prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor, though the law was later repealed in 1856. 1861–1864: The Civil War 1873: Eliza Thompson led women to sing hymns against alcohol in Visitation Bands to protest saloons and petition drug stores who filled prescriptions. 1879: Frances Willard becomes head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 1893: Anti-Saloon League founded by Reverend Howard Hyde Russell in Oberlin, Ohio. 1900: Starting in Kiowa, Kansas, Carry Nation begins a 10 year crusade of smashing up saloons.

1910: Adolphus Busch is the most powerful brewer in the United States. February 3, 1913: 16th Amendment establishing the Federal Income Tax is ratified. December 10, 1913: Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti-Saloon League march on Washington, DC demanding a Prohibition amendment to the Constitution. 1914: Pre-Prohibition Temperance raid discarding liquor in Topeka, Kansas. 1914–1918: World War I January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment is ratified. October 28, 1919: The National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, is passed. 1920: Lawyer George Remus moves to Cincinnati to set up a drug company to gain legal access to bonded liquor. 1920: Roy Olmstead becomes "King of the Puget Sound Bootleggers" 1920s: William McCoy pioneers the "rum-running" trade by sailing a schooner loaded with 1500 cases of liquor from Nassau in the the Bahamas to Savannah, Georgia.

1922: Frank Allen Mather signs on with the Treasury Department to scour Nelson County, Kentucky for signs of moonshiners. 1924: The Boston Herald offers $200 to the reader who comes up with a new word for someone who flagrantly ignores the edict and drinks illegal liquor. 1926: Al Capone is blamed for murder of prosecutor, Billy McSwiggin. 1928: The Purple Gang goes to trial for bootlegging and highjacking. 1929: Gang violence is on the rise in nearly every city in the United States. February 14, 1929: The Valentine's Day Massacre, when Al Capone has seven of Bugs Moran's men murdered in Chicago. October 1929: Stock Market crash 1929–1941: The Great Depression December 5, 1933: The 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition is ratified. Prohibition Era Timeline Prohibition Era Timeline By Martin Kelly Updated February 18, 2016.

The Prohibition Era in the United States has a storied past beginning with various temperance movements in the 1830's and finally culminating with the passage of the 18th amendment. However, the success was short-lived and the 18th amendment was repealed thirteen years later with the passage of the 21st amendment. Learn more about this historic period in American social history with this timeline. 1830's - Temperance Movements begin advocating for abstinence from alcohol. 1847 - The first prohibition law is passed in Maine (although a prohibition law had previously passed in the Oregon territory). 1855 - 13 states have enacted prohibition legislation. 1869 - The National Prohibition Party is founded. 1881 - Kansas is the first state to have prohibition in its state constitution. 1890 - The National Prohibition Party elects its first member of the House of Representatives. 1893 - The Anti-Saloon League is formed. 1917 - The US Senate passes the Volstead Act on December 18th which is one of the significant steps to the passage of the 18th amendment.

continue reading below our video How Did Bootlegging Work During Prohibition? 1918 - The War Time Prohibition Act is passed to save grain for the war effort during World War I . 1919 - On October 28th the Volstead Act passes the US Congress and establishes the enforcement of prohibition. 1919 - On January 29th, the 18th amendment is ratified by 36 states and goes into effect on the federal level. 1920's - The rise of bootleggers such as Al Capone in Chicago highlight the darker side of prohibition. 1929 - Elliot Ness begins in earnest to tackle violators of prohibition and Al Capone's gang in Chicago. 1932 - On August 11th, Herbert Hoover gave an acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination for president in which he discussed the ills of prohibition and the need for its end. 1933 - On March 23rd, Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Cullen-Harrison Act which legalizes the manufacture and sale of certain alcohol. 1933 - On December 5th, prohibition is repealed with the 21st amendment.

Question: Prohibition in the USA was enacted into law by the 'National Prohibition Act'. By what name was this popularly known?
Answer: THE VOLSTEAD ACT